Chapter 8
Stewed Cabbage is the eighth chapter of the manga ''Delicious in Dungeon. Summary The party wander around the stone corridors on the third floor of the dungeon. Laios helps the group to avoid unnecessary encounters with the undead by using his ability to differentiate their footsteps. When he suggests they take the left path to avoid a group of Golems, Senshi stops him. In response, Marcille says that golems are magical creatures and that she knows how to make them, but Senshi mentions he has business with the golems and asks the party to come with him. Senshi brings the party to his base camp on the third level. He explains that he hunts primarily on the second and fourth floors and goes to town on occasion to stock up on basics, having met the party while returning from one of these trips. Despite the lack of food on the third floor, Senshi waxes lyrical about golems being perfect vegetable patches, which makes Marcille and Chilchuck ask him to apologize to the people of the castle and magic scholars alike. He explains that their need for occasional maintenance made him make his camp on this floor. Senshi whistles and the golems approach. He quickly dispatches them by removing their cores, amazing Chilchuck and Laios, but making Marcille suspicious. Senshi then enlists the group to help harvest the vegetables and pull out any weeds. Senshi explains how he disposes of the weeds by letting them dry out, then once withered burying them in the golems to decompose. Marcille's suspicions are heightened, and as Senshi adds fertilizer to the soil, she exclaims that she knew it - Senshi knew where the cores were since he put them there himself. She says this is a crime, as it is tampering with magical creatures without permission, but Senshi says that all he's doing is tending to the soil (and exploiting a loophole in the law). Senshi finishes fertilizing the soil, and with the party tills and plants new seeds into the golems. As the party refresh themselves, Senshi replaces the golems' cores into their bodies. Laios is amazed at how Senshi cares for the golems and the hard life he leads. To celebrate their hard work, the team prepare a meal with the vegetables they harvested. As Senshi tries to start a fire, Marcille offers to light it with magic for him but he rejects her offer, saying that doing things the easy way with magic dulls a person. Senshi finishes preparing the meal, moving quickly around his base to retrieve ingredients, and the party dig in. Marcille declares the vegetables surprisingly delicious, given they are grown underground. Laios proposes it may be something in the golems but Marcille is quick to shut him down. The party devour the rest of the meal then sit down to digest. As they do so, Senshi heads to the bathroom. Marcille comments on how clean the bathrooms on this floor are and wonders aloud who takes care of them. This sparks a realization and to her horror Senshi returns with two pails of toilet waste to put in his fertilizer pot. Marcille feels a little sick after realizing, but Chilchuck points out that surface farmers do the same thing. Laios asks Senshi why he is so obsessed with making a living in the dungeon, and Senshi explains that he maintains the third floor out of a deep respect for the dungeon and for giving back to it what he has taken from it. This worries Laios momentarily, and he asks if it is okay for Senshi to leave the third floor unattended for so long, but Senshi says the golems can protect the floor for a month or two without him and also that if the party die of malnutrition it'd haunt him for the rest of his life. Something about this amazes Laios once again.Chapter 8 Characters in Order of Appearance * Laios Thorden * Senshi * Marcille * Chilchuck Dishes *Golem Field Fresh Veggie Lunch References